File No. 861.00/1380
The British Ambassador ( Spring Rice) to the Secretary of State
Memorandum
The United States Government have already been informed of the policy which the British Government propose to adopt in their relations with the Bolsheviki government.
The British Government feel it essential that in some way or other relations should be kept up between the Allies and the Bolsheviki authorities at Petrograd, and the former Acting British Consul General at Moscow, Mr. Lockhart, is being sent to Petrograd with instructions to keep unofficially in touch with them. The British Government will also, by means of unofficial channels, keep in touch with the newly appointed agent of the Bolsheviki government in London, M. Litvinov.
As already explained, the British Government consider it necessary to maintain relations in some way, and they feel that this can best be done by the means now adopted, as the present system does not entail the recognition of the Trotsky-Lenin government either by the British Government or the Governments of the Allies.